Having dipped into the comeback well a little too often, the Dodgers came up empty Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium in their attempt to race past the Oakland Athletics at the finish.

Owners of 18 comeback victories already this season, including one against the A’s on Tuesday, the Dodgers walked away with a 5-4 interleague defeat after twice trailing by four runs.

The loss still did little to alter their status as the team with the best record in baseball.

The Dodgers are now 43-23 and sit a healthy 8? games on top of the National League West.

“You get situations where you think you’re going to win because you’ve done it so often, especially here,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “It just wasn’t meant to be tonight. They gave us extra opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of it.”

The A’s had all kinds of trouble on defense with three “official” errors. Jack Cust dropped a flyball in right field in the eighth inning. One batter later Orlando Cabrera did the same, but he was saved because the infield fly rule was in effect.

Even when Rafael Furcal singled to open the bottom of the ninth, that ball shot just past the glove of A’s second baseman Adam Kennedy.

But A’s reliever Andrew Bailey closed out Oakland’s victory, getting Casey Blake on a groundball to end it.

“Sometimes it gets frustrating when you aren’t putting up runs (early),” Blake said. “We had to put together some runs in the late innings the last two nights and that’s not always going to happen, but I’m proud of the way we fought back.”

It was just the second time all season the Dodgers lost a one-run game at home, dropping their record in that category to 12-2.

Not even a replay on the video board before the bottom of the ninth of Kirk Gibson’s dramatic home run in the 1988 World Series against the A’s could help.

With Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda struggling to find his form, this one hardly looked like it would offer any drama. Kuroda (1-3) made his fourth start since coming off the disabled list and couldn’t get the job done.

He gave up five runs to the 11 th-best scoring offense in the American League, including two home runs, and still looks nothing like the pitcher who was dominating in two postseason victories last season.

While looking good in his first two starts off the DL, progress has stopped over Kuroda’s past two outings. Against the Texas Rangers on Friday, he gave up five runs (four earned) on eight hits over 53 innings.

It was nearly identical Wednesday as he gave up his five runs on seven hits in six innings. He threw 91 pitches and hasn’t thrown more than 94 pitches in a game since he came back.

“I don’t think my physical condition is bad because I have all my pitches,” Kuroda said through an interpreter. “I just haven’t had any luck and I missed locating some pitches. I just have to be patient and wait until I can pitch well.”

The A’s built a 4-0 lead with a three-run third inning, scoring once on a home run from Rajai Davis and adding two more runs on a long ball from Cust.

The Dodgers managed to break through for the first time in the fifth inning against A’s starter Trevor Cahil (4-5). Hudson’s RBI single cut the A’s lead to 4-1.

The A’s made it 5-1 against Kuroda when Cabrera’s two-out single scored Holliday.

The Dodgers’ comeback began and was nearly complete with Matt Kemp at the plate in the eighth inning down by a run and runners on the corners with one out. But Kemp grounded into a double play against A’s reliever Brad Ziegler.

“In spite of a base hit that put us in position to tie the game (Ziegler) got the double-play ball,” Torre said. “Matty hit it good, but it was right at the second baseman.”